Christmas Night
by boopingsloth
Summary: They couldn't let Christmas Eve go by without spending it together ice-skating. And then of course, there had to be cookies. And Nora couldn't let anyone stay up late because if they were awake, Santa Claus wouldn't come, and she was going to get a present! Because Santa was real -Ren had told her so!


So… this was meant to be longer. And… well, there was more, but I don't wanna say because… well, yeah. I had fun, but I had all these ideas that sounded great together but didn't work so well together on the paper. Anyway, for those of you with family over, or friends, or the dozen animals outside, happy holidays! I hope you enjoy and I own nothing!

* * *

 _ **Christmas Night**_

She was graceful, balanced… she was moving smoothly, smoothly…

Or not.

"Owwww!" Nora's arms pinwheeled as she fell backwards, slamming onto her butt painfully. "Ren! Whose idea was it to put on shoes with blades and risk our lives on _ice_?"

Ren slid to a stop effortlessly next to his partner, reaching a hand down to help her up. "I'm pretty sure it was yours."

"Well, it was not my brightest idea!" Nora complained, nearly toppling over even with Ren's assistance getting on her feet. Making it to the wall without another tumble, Nora sent an upset pout in the direction of their teammates.

Jaune -probably thanks to his seven sisters- was surprisingly good at ice skating, and was currently skating _backwards_ in a fashion that offended his clumsier teammate. Still, Jaune was managing to remain on both feet, not run into anyone, _and_ help teach Pyrrha the basics -Nora still thought that having never ice skated was a crime. There had to be more to life than training after all!

"Well, at least it's working out for _someone_ ," Nora muttered darkly, more irritated at her own inability to skate well herself than the joy of her comrades. "That was the _idea_ after all. I _wanted_ that."

"Yes, you did," Ren was more amused than he would ever admit out loud by Nora's inability to skate, especially when compared to her general competence in everything else. "In fact, I believe the entire purpose for this trip was to… what was it? 'Get together-together at last'?"

"I knoooooow!" Nora whined, clinging to the wall, completely clueless to her partner's amusement at her situation. "But I wanted to be able to enjoy watching it too!"

Ren was moving slowly around his partner as she used the wall as support, looking back as the other two passed by. He didn't mind going slow, but he knew that if he mentioned it, Nora would try to go faster and end up falling even more… which would only upset her more. "We could sit and eat the cookies we brought."

"Cookies…" They'd spent hours baking them the night before, from sugar to peppermint to chocolate chip… they had a feast of sweets in a basket waiting on a table. Nora wasn't worried that someone would steal it, not with the looks she'd given people when they arrived, but she knew the cookies were there. "But then I can't skate."

"You can't skate now," Ren pointed out, not unkindly as he led Nora to the edge of the ice rink. "And if you keep falling, you can't watch them."

"But…" Nora nearly sighed in relief as they made it off the ice, an involuntary response that made her stop protesting. Honestly, she just wanted to take the skates off right then and there… and then eat cookies. Lots and lots of cookies.

Ren wasn't sure how Nora could walk in heels, but nearly twist both of her ankles on skates, but he kept close to make sure that didn't happen. It was only when she plopped into a chair that he allowed himself to relax and sit down himself. "It wasn't a bad idea to come."

Even if it was cold. Ren did not like the cold and had prepared himself with coat, scarf, gloves, and hat -most of which homemade by Nora, which didn't help the misunderstanding that they were dating. But still.

It hadn't been so bad, being on the ice. It was almost like the times before homicidal maniacs and fanatics tried to kill them at school… and while he would never admit it to anyone, it was nice to see Jaune and Pyrrha realize how they felt about the other.

Even if they weren't realizing that the feelings were mutual.

"Well, of course it wasn't a bad idea! When are any of my ideas bad?" Ren sent Nora a look that had her grinning sheepishly, reaching for the cookie basket eagerly. "Alright, so my idea to redecorate Glynda's office into a shrine for Headmaster Ozpin might not have been the best prank idea in the world! It was at least amusing!"

Ren still wasn't sure how she had convinced him to pick the lock on Glynda's door. It had been a _horrible_ idea, one that all of Team JNPR tried to tell Nora would only land her in trouble. He had followed her to _stop_ her and ended up an accomplice.

"Oh come on, admit that it was funny to see Glynda blame Cardin since we dropped his stuff in there too!" Nora had two cookies in each hand, ignoring Ren's raised eyebrows as she bit into them. "He dodawy deherved id!"

"Excuse me?" Ren smiled a little at Nora's excitement, caught up as he normally was in her antics.

"He totally deserved it! I don't care if Yatsuhashi came by and nearly made him die of terror, _no one_ messes with Velvet and gets away with it!"

Ren reached over and took a chocolate chip cookie before Nora could eat them all. "You do realize Velvet could beat Cardin without even thinking about it, don't you?"

"But she won't! Velvet's too nice to get revenge! So I'll do it for her!" It probably had more to do with Nora's grudge against Cardin for what he'd done to Jaune than wanting to defend Velvet… but Ren wasn't going to convince her to let it go, because honestly, since when had Nora been close enough to anyone else to go to these lengths?

Nora opened her mouth to say more -or eat more cookies- and a very high-pitched squeal escaped instead. Rubbing at his ear, Ren raised his eyebrows at Nora again, earning himself a bright grin as she pointed towards the ice.

"He's holding her hands! It's so cute! It's sooooooooo cliché! Ren! This has rom-com written all over it! We're living in a rom-com and we get to be the sassy best friend characters who are totally awesome and the audience wants more of!" Nora bounced in her chair with a laugh, somehow not attracting the attention of their teammates.

Or they were just ignoring her. That was also a distinct possibility when they felt she was going to tease them about their obvious feelings for each other.

"Hey Ren? None of these cookies were for Santa, were they?"

Ren looked at his partner, then at the suddenly almost empty basket. "No, but some of those were for Jaune and Pyrrha."

"But they're being adorable! I need energy to spy on and tease them!"

"Nora, those are not words anyone wants to hear about them."

"But it's true! And it's Christmas, which makes me happy, which makes me think of cookies -ooh, and pancakes too! We should have some pancakes and stuff tonight! Do you think Santa likes pancakes? I mean, we _know_ he likes cookies, but…"

"Nora."

"Yes Ren?"

"Save some cookies for them."

()~~()~~()~~()~~()

It was a special kind of magic when Jaune and Pyrrha _didn't_ stop holding hands -that was certainly a new sight for Ren- Nora _didn't_ tease them non-stop about it (which might have been the reason they didn't stop), and he somehow managed to stop Nora from eating every sweet in reach.

"I like to watch people ice-skate! I mean, I like to too, but then I fall, and then it's not as fun anymore!" Nora was babbling to Jaune and Pyrrha as they walked into the dorms, using her hands to talk just as much as words. "Ooh, but figure skating is fun to watch! Ren would make a good figure skater; he knows how to do that kinda stuff, or he did when we were little, cause he showed me! He doesn't do it much anymore because it's _cold_ and Ren doesn't do the cold! Do you Ren?"

"No." Unlike his teammates, Ren didn't pull off his scarf and gloves when they were inside the building. That would wait until he was ready to change into other warm clothes.

"Which is so unfair, because he doesn't like the cold, but he's so good at that stuff! But I like the cold and snow and stuff and I can't skate! But there's always hot cocoa afterwards and cookies and peppermint and presents and…"

"Nora." Ren placed a hand on Nora's head, looking down at her quietly. "It was far too late to be this loud."

They hadn't expected the restaurant to be so crowded after their ice skating trip, which had added an extra hour to their schedule… and then of course transport hadn't arrived on time. As a result, it was almost eleven at night, their fellow students were having their own celebrations, and the more obedient ones were following lights-out rules and were already asleep.

No one would get in trouble for breaking curfew -not with how bad public transportation was tonight- but it didn't mean they could make too much noise in the hall. That was just asking for problems.

"But it's Christmas! We should be having fun and being together and doing fun things!"

"If you don't sleep, there's no presents," Ren pointed out, willing to take advantage of Nora's belief in Santa Claus to get more rest after being out in the cold for so long. He had pointed out this belief to the others, and from the look Jaune and Pyrrha shared, Ren was willing to bet that they were willing to go along with it to for some extra sleep.

"…." Nora looked heartbroken for a second, just long enough that it looked like Pyrrha was going to compromise and let Nora keep them awake for longer. It was a dangerous idea, one that Ren put down by nudging Nora gently towards their room.

"In the morning, we can have pancakes and cookies." After all, he wasn't going to be actively dealing with Nora's energy… he would just follow her around the dorm while she ranted at their friends about presents and food. Team RWBY could handle the socializing Nora needed after Christmas breakfast.

"Okay!" Without waiting for them, Nora darted off towards their room, not even looking back at her walking teammates. By the time they made it back into their room, Nora had already changed into her pajamas and was tucked into her bed. "Hurry up, let's sleeeeeeeeeeep!"

Jaune and Pyrrha exchanged a look before moving to their respective closets to grab nightclothes. Ren didn't hesitate, seeing Nora had pulled out his pajamas for him -noticing also that they were brand new and matched her own. He knew that he had a night of setting up to do, but that could wait until Nora was fast asleep and wouldn't see him eating Santa's cookies and setting up presents and decorations.

He probably should have stopped years ago, but it was next to impossible to destroy Nora's belief in Santa Claus… not just because she wouldn't want to believe he wasn't real, but also because Ren didn't want to see Nora's face when she did find out.

So, if anyone tried to destroy Nora's belief in Christmas and Santa, Ren would destroy them. Subtly, so that Nora wouldn't notice.

And then he'd go even bigger on Christmas because that made Nora smile and that was worth the late night and all the problems that went with it.

()~~()~~()~~()~~()

Nora didn't open her eyes, but she could hear movement in the room, movement that shouldn't have been there. After all, everyone was asleep, and only one person would have snuck in on Christmas… except Nora knew that person wasn't real. She'd known that person wasn't real since she was nine.

It was just really sweet how Ren tried so hard to make sure that Christmas was special, so how could she ruin that and embarrass Ren by letting him know that she knew what he did each year?

Plus, it was something Ren did only for her. He was nice to pretty much everyone, or at least more than polite, he would help anyone who asked for it, but stuff like this… it was these things that made her feel really special.

Which also got her hopes up, but Nora could live with that. She had been living with that, because Ren was a clueless idiot that made fantastic pancakes. She could be happy with these special things Ren did for her, because even if she told him that she knew, there was no way Nora could ask Ren for what she actually wanted.

Because when the sun rose, Nora would get up, wake up her teammates, force them into opening presents and running around with her and making as much noise as she possibly could to hide the fact that when she looked at Ren, Nora wondered if this would be the year he'd see her as something other than his hyperactive best friend.

Probably not.

Nora stayed silent as she heard Ren climb into the bed next to her own, smiling under the covers to herself. No, this probably wasn't the year she'd get Ren's affections as a present, but…

 _Maybe next year!_

* * *

So… yeah… that whole ice skating bit was supposed to evolve into Christmas Eve night and fun stuff, but then it didn't and then headcanons changed because my brain hates cooperating with ideas and… Anyway, I'm running on about 4 hours of sleep, too much food, and family showing up in about an hour and half, so I won't blab on and on. I hope you guys enjoyed, have a fabulous holiday season and I will see you guys in the next story!


End file.
